Pastoral Messages from Fr. Rick 5/28/23
Honoring our Veterans: On this special weekend we memorialize the great sacrifices of so many who have served the cause of the freedoms we enjoy and expect in America. It should give us pause to consider if we are living lives worthy of their sacrifice. How apropos this day falls alongside the celebration of Pentecost when we were sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, Fear (Awe) of the Lord. We NEED these gifts to be the nation God has called us to be.
Genuinely Pro-Life Resources You can one-click on these resources at kanabcatholicchurch.org and Pastoral Messages. It easy and fun for the whole family!
Theology of the Body for Teens
https://www.tobpatron.com/tob-for-teens
Family Prayers from Birth to Death | USCCB
●The Truth About Abortion & Women’s Health
This one-page resource from the USCCB dispels many myths claiming restrictions on abortion will limit women’s access to life-saving care. https://www.usccb.org/resources/truth-about-abortion-and-womens-health
●Samaritanus bonus
In 2020, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the letter Samaritanus bonus (“on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life”). Find this, and other end of life resources here:
https://www.dioslc.org/respect-for-life/end-of-life-concerns
June is ‘PRIDE MONTH’
Pope Francis, other Catholic Bishops and leaders have directed Catholics to reach out and ‘welcome’ people with a variety of different attraction proclivities, a.k.a., LGBTQ+…s. Clearly, we need help learning how to do this while staying faithful to the Church’s Magisterium. Consider the following website which could be very helpful: https://www.edeninvitation.com. Also, consider the homily reflections in this bulletin and the homily on our website for a ‘deeper dive’ into this fascinating subject.
Homily Reflections – Pentecost Sunday
1 Corinthians 12: To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.
On this feast of Pentecost, we usually celebrate especially the GIFTS of the Holy Spirit with which we are sealed at Confirmation. They are: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, Fear (Awe) of the Lord and are intended primarily for our personal sanctification. Today’s second reading from 1 Corinthians talks about what are usually considered the CHARISMS of the Holy Spirit. Specific charisms are given to each baptized person to build up the Church and to be utilized in conjunction with a community of believers to then go forth and build up the Kingdom of God. Our purpose on earth is to get to heaven and to make the world look more like heaven than hell on our way to heaven.
During our earthly journey we are no match for the devil. Our many intractable problems attest to that. For this we are given all this help from the Holy Spirit. We ignore this help at our peril.
The Sienna Institute in Colorado Springs https://siena.org is a widely used source for this study of charisms. They list the charisms in this order: Encouragement; Hospitality; Helps; Pastoring; Mercy, Evangelism; Prophecy; Teaching, Giving; Leadership; Service; Administration, Healing; Intercessory Prayer, Knowledge; Wisdom; Discernment of Spirits, Celibacy; Faith; Missionary; Voluntary Poverty, Craftsmanship; Music; Writing.
These gifts are supernatural and make it possible to rise above the earthly realm of what we often think is normal or natural. Our culture’s growing confusion about ‘normal’ sexual behavior, for example, is a direct result of not identifying for instance the charism of celibacy. Our high divorce rates, abortion, the added stress within single parent families and the perceived need for a ‘Pride Month’ could be effectively mitigated with a better understanding of celibacy, chastity, natural family planning, and all the rest of the charisms. People must have intimacy and community to be happy, holy and healthy. When all of our gifts are contributed, we have something very closely resembling the Kingdom of God; One Body, One Spirit in Christ.